Purely Joyful Movie!

Don't Believe the Hype

The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

It's a good bad... and worth a popcorn matinée. While it's easy to lament what could have been...

Charles Bronson is at his coolest and most bad ass in this entertaining Italian crime flick. Bronson plays Jeff Heston, a professional hit man who wants to leave that line of work behind him. But his associates will have NONE of that, and spend a lot of time trying to set him up and take him out. When attempts are made on his life, Jeff makes it his mission to get revenge on the old "friend" and current flame who tried to eliminate him.Adding a shot in the arm is Telly Savalas, appearing around the one hour mark, as a slick, rich gangster, Al Weber. Telly is a lot of fun to watch. Female lead Jill Ireland is less satisfactory (but looks amazing), but she's not bad as this scheming, conniving person. The excellent international cast also includes Michel Constantin as Killain, Umberto Orsini as Steve, and Ray Saunders as one of Jeffs' cell mates.This twist laden script, with six people in total credited for the story and screenplay (including Lina Wertmuller and director Sergio Sollima), has the potential to confuse the viewer, especially as it doesn't always exist in one time frame. But Sollima does an excellent job at crafting the action. One can hardly fail to notice that the opening set piece plays out wordlessly, with no actors speaking until about 12 minutes along. A climactic elevator ride similarly plays out almost without sound. The camera work is first rate, as is the use of various locations. The pacing may cause some viewers to fidget, as it's very deliberate most of the time.Bronson fans will see a different side of him here, as he roughs up his real life wife Ireland on more than one occasion. He's not a squeaky clean protagonist, for sure. The ending may likewise take some people by surprise.Overall this is stylish trash, well shot in Techniscope and featuring a typically eclectic soundtrack courtesy of the legendary Ennio Morricone. There are also little doses of nudity along the way.Seven out of 10.

VIOLENT CITY is definitely not your average Charles Bronson action extravaganza, but there is so much more going on than you think. Italian filmmaker Sergio Sollima (REVOLVER, THE BIG GUNDOWN) brings his energetic flair from his Spaghetti Westerns to this exciting tale of revenge loosely based on Jean Pierre Melville's LE SAMOURAI. From watching the stunning opening credits sequence, the audience knows they're in for a rough, wild ride. In one of his first starring roles, Charles Bronson brings his laconic screen presence into the role of professional hit man Jeff Heston. As his former mistress Vanessa, Jill Ireland conveys innocence and sensuality within every emotion of the character. Telly Savalas gives his most sinister performance as the crime kingpin Al Weber so convincingly that I was immediately baffled and mesmerized at the same time. From watching the car chase in the Bahamas, my eyes were literally glued to the screen. Turbo-charged engine cars crashing, unlimited amount of speeding, no dialog and no music. Perfecto. The race track scene is also another highlight of the film. As the ricocheting bullet nails a tire, a racing car crashes into a brick wall causing it to explode. That by the way is a sweet revenge. Ennio Morricone (THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY, THE UNTOUCHABLES) delivers a magnificent, pulse-pounding score as always ranging from the orchestral to the psychedelic. Cameraman Aldo Tonti takes advantage of the Techniscope format with stunning compositions and tight close-ups.There may be no way to recommend VIOLENT CITY except that it's a striking masterpiece of the always-overlooked Eurocrime genre.

Man, Charles Bronson was such a weirdo. His on-screen presence was so cold, shady and unlikable, but the bad guys were even worse. So the viewer is always left to reluctantly root for Charlie -- by default. This one is no different (of course, why should it be otherwise?). "Violent City" starts out with some badass car chase and action sequences. The driving in this movie (sans power-steering!) is really legit. But the second half of the movie just drags.I thought the plot was okay: the idea of this sexy girl double-crossing the main character, using her feminine wiles to survive in an underworld of sleazy, dangerous mobsters and killers. She's blameless but ultimately as guilty as the rest of them! There are some okay plot twists that come along, and Bronson's crazed "tragic love" seems reasonable: there aren't that many hot babes that will fall in love with a contract killer (unless I'm mistaken). The movie is pretty violent and sexually explicit, though. The sexual themed moments are either cheesy or rough, and the (surprisingly) monotonous score by Morricone makes this a total '70s gangster exploitation film.Unfortunately the editing is a little choppy, some plot elements just are not explained very well (such as what happens in prison near the beginning of the film) and the American version is overly censored. I should point out that this film does not have Italian in the American script, contrary to what some other reviewers have mentioned. It was dubbed, both in Italian and in English, and the non-American releases have segments in Italian. The version I watched was a non-American version, so the parts that had been cut out from the American version were in Italian. The sudden transitions into Italian were pretty amusing.It was entertaining, but not that memorable. The car chases and the sniper scenes are pretty hot, though.4.5

After the highly entertaining Run,Man, Run, writer/ Director Sergio Sollima returned with this satisfying,if not all successful, tale of a hit-man, Jeff, who gained a conscience (Charles Bronson) and his quest to find the people who've double-crossed him and had him thrown in jail (and almost killed). Mrs. Bronson, Jill Ireland, is on hand as the conniving girlfriend who along with local mafioso boss, Weber (Telly Savalas) play him for a patsy. Entertaining enough and the re-added minutes of footage in the Anchor Bay released DVD of this is very welcome. Any fellow Bronson appreciator will find nothing to complain about with this one, and Jill (it very well could be a body double though) supplies the T&A content quite nicely (and multiple times). Fans of the director will be slightly off-put as this isn't as good as his films that came directly before (Run, Man, Run, The Big Gundown, Face to Face), nor after (Revolver) all of which are highly recommended by me by the way. However this is still a welcome enough diversion.My Grade: B-